The life and times of a motoring and motor rallying journalist in Scotland

Friday, 7 September 2018

Rally - Stoor on tour

If anyone wants to learn how to run a special
stage rally, they couldn’t do much better than come to the south west of
Scotland for either last month’s Solway Coast Rally or this weekend’s Armstrong
Galloway Hills Rally.

At Scrutineering tonight a number of co-drivers commented on
the quality of the paperwork while most folk noticed the well arranged queuing
system for Scrutineering – better than any Post Office could manage. Does
anyone remember proper Post Offices? Anyway, that’s not just down to the
efforts of the three local car clubs, Solway, South of Scotland and Machars but
also to the efforts of the ‘Haugh of Urr Rally Factory’ as the Riddick household
is known locally.

One crew that didn’t make it to Scrutineering was the
Mitsubishi duo, Bruce McCombie and Michael Coutts. The Lancer blew its turbo
earlier at the Test day, but when they took it off, the boys found some bits of
it in the sump, so the car was pushed on to the trailer!

Had a brief chat with Ford Fiesta ST newcomer Finlay Brock.
He did a few Scottish Tarmack events last year but then went looking for
something else. This year he’s been contesting the Flanders Rally Championship
in Belgium. “It’s cheaper going to Belgium than Ireland or the Isle of Man,”
said Finlay, “we drive down to Dover, have a 35 minute trip on the train
through the tunnel and then it’s never more thana3 hour drive to Belgium depending on which event
we are contesting. We leave at mid-day on a Friday, recce on Saturday and do
the rally on Sunday returning early doors Monday.”

He added that noise checks and Scrutineering are quite
relaxed, the organisers helpful and the fans are enthusiastic. He can get two
events out of one set of tyres and he reckons that it’s cheaper doing events in
Belgium than getting the ferry across the Irish Sea. There is one other bonus.
If you have a bump or break down there is invariably a group of spectators nearby
with a barbecue and a supply of beer. And they can be generous, very generous,
perhaps too generous! Worth a thought, eh?